


I Did Something Bad

by fiveisarat



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies)
Genre: (fuck it same universe), (this could go with my other 00q fic), 00Q - Freeform, Alec Trevelyan - Freeform, Angst, Feels, Gay, I Will Go Down With This Ship, James Bond Needs a Hug, M/M, Meet-Cute, Movie: Skyfall (2012), Original Male Character - Freeform, Quartermaster, Spoilers, although it really isnt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:48:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24203131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveisarat/pseuds/fiveisarat
Summary: Q gets stuck playing fucking word association games with a clearly mentally unstable Double-0 agent. Perfect.~ or, Q's the one playing word association games with Bond after he returns to MI6 in Skyfall. It's meet-cute until it really, really isn't. ~
Relationships: 00Q, James Bond/Q
Kudos: 115





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this picture:  
> https://doubleohqs.tumblr.com/image/158440830608

The terrorist attack. 

Q was definitely not okay with that. He really should have been able to stop it, but it had all happened so quickly, and he and the rest of the Q Branch minions had barely made it out in time. Hidden in the tunnels used by Winston Churchill during WWII, MI6's new Quartermaster, instead of helping with damage control and tracking down whoever _did_ this- was sitting in front of M, as she explained that "it will only take a few minutes". 

What was "it", you might ask? 

"It" was word association games. Q found such things annoying, not because he was "too smart" but because really, what good did they do? But psych and M thought they were important, so Q had to conduct one. 

He had to conduct one on James Bond, a Double-0 agent who, until just now, was presumed dead by everyone but M in MI6. He needed to be cleared for the field, but in order for that to happen, he needed to pass various tests, and psych gave him this one to conduct. 

So he sat down in the uncomfortable plastic chair and looked up at the door opening to reveal a haggard agent in a blue shirt and pants (probably issued by psych) who looked like he'd rather blow up the whole place than sit here and play stupid games. Q could sympathize. 

"So." He said crisply, looking to get this over with as soon as possible. "My name is Q, and I'm your Quartermaster," he introduced himself. He looked at the top sheet of paper in the agent's enormous file. _James Bond. 007._

"You?" the agent sat back in his chair, looking at him with thinly veiled humor. 

"Why? Because I'm not wearing a lab coat?" He asked offhandedly, sifting through papers to find his tablet. 

"Because you still have spots." 

Q bit back his retort and continued. "We're going to be doing some simple word association," he explained. "You probably know how to do this-" 

"Do tell," Bond snarked, and Q rolled his eyes. 

"Well, if you would let me finish," he said. "I say a word. You say the first word that comes into your mind. So if I were to say 'day' you might say," Q looked expectantly at the Double-0. 

"Wasted." 

"You might say 'night'," Q steamrolled past this remark. Bond smirked. "Let's get started- 'gun'." Q mentally facepalmed at the simple words. 

Bond almost rolled his eyes. "Shot." 

"'Agent'." 

The agent looked right at him. "Provocateur." 

"'Woman'." 

"Provocatrix." 

Q looked up but didn't say anything. "'Heart'." 

"Target." Bond's voice had gone hard and clipped. 

"'Bird'." Q watched the agent's reaction. 

A small sigh. "Sky," he said with a slight raise of his eyebrows that indicated he was not at all impressed. 

"'M'." Q wanted to hear this one- 

"Bitch." Q looked down again, and as he looked up for the next word, he could see both a bit of hurt, but also- was that humor in his eyes? 

"'Sunlight.'" 

"Swim," Bond said, not taking his eyes off Q for a second. 

"'Moonlight'." 

"Dance." Q didn't look up this time. Although the Double-0 looked like hell walking, he didn't want to get sucked into the bright blue of his eyes and risk never coming out. And by extension, making a damned fool of himself. 

"'Murder'."

"Employment." Accurate. 

"'Country'." He could guess this one. 

"England." There it was. 

Q frowned minutely at the next one. What the hell kind of game was this? 

"Skyfall," he said, softer, in confusion. 

Silence. 

He looked up, seeing the agent lost in his head. 

"Skyfall." 

James Bond all but pinned him to the chair with his blue eyes, gone from light humor to cold and hard. 

"Done." 

Q sat back as the agent stood up and left. He brushed it off when Mallory and M asked about how he'd felt doing it, saying, "Next time call me in for something important," and walked out. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the utter fiasco that was Skyfall, Q received a flashdrive from Gareth Mallory, the new head of MI6. It was a recording from the last M- telling him he needed to play one last game for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i couldnt resist someone stop me

"She left this for you," the new M said, pinning Q with his grey eyes, and sliding a small USB drive across the polished wooden desk. The young Quartermaster picked it up and looked it over carefully, flipping it over with his deft fingers and finally looking back up. 

"I do know what's on it, she told me before the attack," M smirked and arched an eyebrow at Q. "The agent in question is in Q Branch already, in your office, in fact. You should get going." 

"Yes sir," Q said, albeit a bit confused, and caught up with a minion in the hallways. This was minion #5, or Five, as everyone called him. He had become R about five months ago, but his nickname stuck. There were rumors that one day, he'd be Quartermaster, and Q tended to back these rumors. Five was smart, always ready with a scathing retort to anyone who challenged his position or competence, and had killer taste in music. (He and Q initially bonded over their mutual love of Marina and the Diamonds.) His blond hair appeared white in the bright lights as he held papers in one hand and his phone in the other. 

"Hey, Your Evil Lordiness," Five said. "You've got 009 at 12:30, about the DB10, and 007's in your office. Or rather, he's just outside, scaring the others." 

Q rolled his eyes. "Of course he is." he checked his watch. "It's 11:00 now, depending on how long I take with 007, and then getting 06 through the Canada mission, we may have to move 009 back." Five nodded. 

"Gotcha. I'll tell him there may be changes," Five said. "If you need to, sir, I'll take 06 and you won't have to move back the DB10 meeting." 

Q grinned at Five, who had a faint blush spreading over his nose and cheeks. "Why don't you take 006 then."

"Strictly business," the blonde boffin glared at his boss. 

"Strictly business." Q agreed. Five and 006 were the talk of the break room at Q Branch (if they weren't talking about Q and Bond, of course). 006, or Alec Trevelyan, was the object of Five's deeply hidden affections. Trevelyan often requested Five to be his handler on missions, and when he wasn't, asked about him to whoever had taken the mission. This drove everyone crazy, and so he was pretty much permanently assigned to Five, the same way 007 was assigned to Q most of the time. It was a strange sort of flirtation, but Five's inferiority complex often kept him from realizing what was actually happening. 

Five passed Q's office to go to the comms, and Q opened the door to his office. He found James Bond sitting in the chair in front of his desk, leaning back, examining a snowglobe on Q's desk. 

"Q!" Bond grinned, placing the snowglobe back onto the desk. Q took off his coat and stowed his bag under the desk. 

"007, hello," Q said, inserting the flashdrive into his laptop and pulling up the text file. 

_Word Association_

Q sighed inwardly. Why? He read further, and it appeared that psych was conducting more of these tests to see how Skyfall had affected the Double-0 agent. Q frowned slightly, feeling Bond watching him from across the desk. 

There were the simple directions, the same ones Q had read to Bond before Skyfall. Although the words... were different, that much was pointedly obvious. He shook his head minutely and looked up at Bond. 

"Psych wants you to do another word association game." 

"Again?" 007 looked dismayed. "I could be making you tea or something. _Again_?" 

"Yes, again. And since you're not a tea drinker, I doubt you'd be doing that. Shall we get started?" Q shifted the computer and looked expectantly at the agent. 

"Shoot." 

"'Cat'." 

Bond grinned wickedly, "Q." 

Q fought the urge to simultaneously blush and roll his eyes. He chose the latter and said the next word, "'Pencil'." 

"Pen." 

"'Binary.'" Q had started fiddling with a paper clip on his desk. 

"Secondary." Bond didn't take his eyes off of him. Which was unnerving to say the least. 

"'Walther'." Q wanted to hear this one, and he cocked his head, the beginnings of a smirk beginning to form on his face. 

Bond returned his smirk. "Komodo." 

"Of course," Q muttered, and continued. "'M'." 

"Bitch." He said it with a bit of wistfulness at the end. They lapsed into silence for a moment until Q cleared his throat and started again. 

"'Venice'." He wasn't aware of what this had to do with anything but a flash of sadness swept over Bond's features until he said, quieter-

"End." 

The last word, and Q swore he wasn't making this up,

"'Quartermaster'." 

Bond's head shot up. 

"Beginning." 

Q stared at him for a moment, not daring to wonder. The Double-0 agent had been slowly working his way through all of Q's emotional defenses and professionalism. As much as the Quartermaster hated to admit it, he had a childish crush on 007. And he hadn't had a hope of those feelings even being minutely reciprocated. 

"Bond-" 

"James." The agent countered. 

"James..." he closed his laptop and stood. "I should go. I have a meeting..." 

~~Bond~~ James grabbed his arm as he tried to make his way to the door. 

"You have a meeting at 12:30. It's not even 11:30." 

Q shook his head. "006-" 

James finished, "Is doing quite well under Five's supervision, as always." 

Q sighed and sat back down. "I don't know what you mean by all this." 

"By what?" He looked genuinely confused, and Q sighed. 

"Cats cannot just remind you, ever so spontaneously, of me. That isn't... that's not how this works." 

"Why not?" James asked, leaning forward. "Why can't cats, or tea, or snowglobes remind me of you?" 

Q flushed, dark and ugly. He ducked his head. 

"Even if that's the case. I can't remind you of... a _beginning_." 

"Do you know what happened in Venice?" He asked. 

"Not even remotely." James looked surprised. 

"I thought M would have said something..." 

"She didn't," Q said shakily and ran a hand through his already messy hair. 

"Casino Royale," James said quietly. Q took a quick breath. Casino Royale. Everyone knew of the infamous mission, of James Bond's almost-retirement (for reasons that were never fully disclosed), of his almost-death by cardiac arrest, and of the death of Vesper Lynd, the MI6 assistant to the Head of S Branch.

"I know it," Q nodded. 

"Vesper Lynd," he said, not meeting Q's gaze. "She... she was sent to help me, as much as I didn't want someone tagging along," he let out a bitter laugh. "She ended up betraying me. Us. She was working for Quantum the entire time. The terrorist organization we were trying to stop." Q could hear the pain in James' voice as he recounted the last moments of the woman he'd fallen in love with. "The money we won at the casino... she gave it to Quantum henchmen. They locked her in an elevator when I came to get her. The building flooded. I tried to get to her. I tried to get to her, open the doors, but she..." 

"You don't have to," the boffin whispered, his voice felt too loud and he felt like he was intruding on something he had no business being involved in. 

"She kissed my hands." He winced. "Just like I did after I killed a man, and she helped. She had said she felt like it was his blood on her hands. I'd kissed her hands. As if I was taking the blood, the blame and putting it on me." 

Q looked down on the desk and felt his heart drop. 

"I got her out, tried CPR, but it was too late. She'd drowned and I couldn't save her. M said... said she must have known she was going to her death." James looked up and his eyes were red-rimmed, tears threatening to spill. 

"It wasn't her fault. She was forced to be a double agent," he said. "I forgave her. Of course I forgave her. I thought that was the end. I thought I would never... That would be the end of James Bond falling in love with someone." 

Q blinked. He hadn't realized he had been crying, watching James while tears trickled down his cheeks. James' hand reached out and Q didn't move, stock-still. His fingers, a feather-light touch on his cheek.

Q turned his head, ever so slightly, to press his lips to James' fingers. 


End file.
